Operation Wheeler/Wallowa

Operation Wheeler/Wallowa was a US military operation of the Vietnam War which took place from 11 September 1967 to 11 November 1968.

General William Westmoreland dispatched the elite Tiger Force to the fertile Song Ve Valley. The entire population had already been herded from their homes into a crowded refugee camp, but some had come back to resume their traditional farming. The valley had been officially declared a "free-fire zone", and Tiger Force took the designation literally, ordering its troops to shoot anything that moved. Over the next few months, they killed scores of innocent civilians, including two blind brothers, a Buddhist monk, women, children, elderly civilians, and three farmers trying to plant rice. All were reported as enemies killed in action.

Tiger Force then joined the US 101st Airborne Division and the US 1st Cavalry Division for "Operation Wheeler" on 11 September, succeeding in clearing the NVA 2nd Division from Chu Lai. On 4 October, Operation Wallowa was launched, and the US 23rd Infantry Division gradually assumed control of the operation. On 11 November, the 23rd combined the goals of Wheeler and Wallowa into one operation, "Wheeler/Wallowa", which saw the US struggle to clear the Que Son Valley of NVA troops. It was not until November of 1968 that the operation was considered complete, by which time 220 Americans and 3,300 North Vietnamese had been killed. In 1969, NVA reinforcements arrived, and the area was never fully pacified.